THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120243
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FRONT ROYAL, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Landowners 35 miles west of the site Walt Disney Co. abandoned for a theme park say they plan to court the project.
A group of landowners is assembling a 1,500-acre parcel at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 66 in Warren County. The group will offer it next month as a potential site for the Disney's America theme park, according to Sandra Ghost, a real estate agent in Front Royal who is working with the owners.
Landowners met Thursday night at the home of a couple who own one of the largest parcels. Disney officials did not attend.
``The mood at the meeting was extremely positive and enthusiastic,'' Ghost said Friday. ``One couple dissented, and that's because their property has been in the family since the mid-1800s. It's too much of a heart tug for them to give it up.''
In the next few weeks, property owners who want to be included in the proposal will be asked to sign a listing agreement, Ghost said. On Nov. 18, a formal proposal will be mailed to Disney officials for consideration.
Ghost has twice spoken with Disney officials in Orlando, Fla., most recently on Monday. She said they encouraged her to put the Warren County proposal in writing.
``They want to have time to see what they learned from the experience and how to develop fight criteria for the future,'' she said.
A year ago this month, Disney made the surprise announcement that it planned to build an American history-based park on 3,300 acres near Haymarket in Prince William County.
Disney pulled out of the site in September after historians and environmentalists criticized Disney's plans.
Claudia Peters, a Disney spokesperson in Gainesville, wouldn't comment Thursday on the Warren County proposal.
``It's just too early to know what our criterion for a new site is,'' she said. ``We're really just refocusing and regrouping.''
The Piedmont Environmental Council, one of the groups that led the opposition to Disney locating in Haymarket, urged Warren County officials to carefully study all potential ramifications of a Disney project.
``The local people need to take a serious look at what the impacts will be. That's what Prince William, the state officials, failed to do,'' PEC spokesman Dick Johnson said.
Johnson said the site's proximity to the Cedar Creek Civil War battlefield makes it ``inappropriate.''
Ghost and the landowners have not contacted the Warren County Board of Supervisors about their proposal.
KEYWORDS: DISNEY AMERICA
by CNB